Mobile or laptop computing has become more popular as mobile computers have decreased in price and increased in performance. Many mobile computer users use their computers to connect to a network at the office. These same users may disconnect from the network to use their mobile computers when away from the office. Mobile computing demands that users have access in a disconnected environment to the data and the applications that are typically available in a connected environment, i.e., when connected to a network. While preparing for offline use, users generally think in terms of documents, not in terms of applications. Mobile computers do not provide an intelligent list of applications which may be needed when the mobile computer is disconnected from the network.
As mobile computing becomes prevalent, the transition between network-connected use and offline use should be transparent, quick and painless. A mobile computer user should not have to worry about the management of applications and documents on her laptop. The mobile computer user needs to make sure that the documents and applications required when the unit is offline are on the mobile computer before disconnecting it. Thus, there is a need for a method and system for managing the documents and files that are needed on a mobile computer when the mobile computer is disconnected from a network.
However, having needed files and documents on a mobile computer does not mean that the application program functionality needed to run these documents is locally available, i.e. stored on the mobile computer. Thus, there is a need for a method and system for intelligently identifying a list of documents the user may need when offline and mapping the documents to the necessary application program functionality needed to execute the documents.
Thus, given a set of documents, there is a need for a method and system for mapping the set of documents to a set of application program functionality required to run the set of documents. There is a further need for a method and system for a method and system for intelligently identifying a list of documents that may be needed by a user when off-line, i.e., disconnected from a network.